State Professionals

Part five of our week-long series highlighting some of the amazing nurses of the Nurse Alliance of SEIU Pennsylvania. Mariagorathy Opokwu loves her stories. Well, not her stories, but the stories her residents tell her. “So many stories!” she exclaimed. As …

Department of Health posting jobs to implement Court’s ruling The Department of Health (DOH) has begun to post new Population Health positions — a victory a long time in the making. After winning a Pennsylvania Supreme Court case to bring …

In December, we held a statewide “Meet & Discuss” with the Department of Corrections (DOC). Many members were able to participate in the meeting through the DOC’s video conferencing system. The DOC began the meeting discussing the contract with Correct …

Nurses at Warren State Hospital raised their concerns about staffing and the difficulty in hiring new nurses in their rural location. In January, the state recognized our concerns and agreed to increase the starting rate by hiring new nurses in …

For years now, public employees and their organizations have been under attack across the country. Wisconsin’s assault on collective bargaining is only one of the recent more high-profile attacks. The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up a case by anti-union …

In a victory for our union and Pennsylvania’s public health, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has granted a temporary injunction that will prevent the Corbett Administration from continuing to close 26 of the state’s health centers pending a ruling on a full injunction.

On Monday, April 1st, 2013, as the country honors National Public Health Week, our union filed a lawsuit against the Corbett Administration on the grounds that its plan to close 26 public state health centers and eliminate 73 Department of Health positions including 26 community health nurses violates both Pennsylvania law as well as its Constitution.

“We are thrilled that the Department of Corrections has chosen to recognize the irreplaceable value of our service and abandon plans to outsource healthcare services in the DOC,” said Renee Walligan, nurse from SCI.

A frontline Department of Corrections employees, offered testimony at a House Majority Policy Committee hearing that challenged the Corbett Administration’s assertion that outsourcing health care services in the DOC will save money and not compromise safety and security both within and outside prison walls.

Governor Corbett’s proposal to privatize our DOC health care services is bad for nurses, bad for the public and falls far short of projected cost savings, reads a new report just released by SEIU Healthcare PA and the CLEAR Coalition.

A half-dozen corrections nurses (along with one 2-year-old little elf) traveled to Harrisburg to deck the halls of the state capitol building on Tuesday, December 13. The group spread holiday cheer to lawmakers, thanking the 63 sponsors who’ve already signed on to our cause, and reaching out to those who haven’t yet joined us.

Registered nurses at correctional facilities across Pennsylvania stood up for safety and security in our communities and against outsourcing of health care jobs on November 16th at informational pickets outside ten state prisons.

“At a time when public sector unions are under attack across the country, we were able to maintain good standards and advocate for our patients and our profession,” said Harriet Lenair, an RN at Wernersville State Hospital.

Unions that represent state employees in PA joined together in a lawsuit to end payless paydays once and for all. The PA Supreme Court has ruled that most state employees must be paid for working during a budget impasse.